Robert MacArthur Shields (born 9 June 1961 in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

) is a Canadian sociologist and

cultural theorist Culture theory is the branch of comparative anthropology and semiotics that seeks to define the heuristic concept of culture in operational and/or scientific terms. Overview In the 19th century, "culture" was used by some to refer to a wide a ...

. He is Professor and

Henry Marshall Tory Henry Marshall Tory (January 11, 1864 – February 6, 1947) was the first president of the University of Alberta (1908–1928), the first president of the Khaki University, the first president of the National Research Council (1928–1935), and t ...

Endowed Research Chair at

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

. Shields directs th
City Region Studies Centre
in the Faculty o
Extension
From 1991 to 2004 he rose to Professor of Sociology and Directed the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at

Carleton University Carleton University is an English-language public university, public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1942 as Carleton College, the institution originally operated as a private, non-denominational evening college to se ...

Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...

Canada, with an interlude in 1995-97 as a lecturer in Culture and Communications at

Lancaster University Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...

Lancaster Lancaster may refer to: Lands and titles *The County Palatine of Lancaster, a synonym for Lancashire *Duchy of Lancaster, one of only two British royal duchies *Duke of Lancaster *Earl of Lancaster *House of Lancaster, a British royal dynasty ...

UK. Education: Architecture (B.A. Directed Interdisciplinary Studies,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

), Sociology (M.A.

) and Urban and Regional Studies (D.Phil.,

University of Sussex The University of Sussex is a public university, public research university, research university located in Falmer, East Sussex, England. It lies mostly within the city boundaries of Brighton and Hove. Its large campus site is surrounded by the ...

Contributions and notable impacts

Shields founded the journal, '' Space and Culture: International journal of social spaces '' in 1997 and ''Curb'' Canadian Planning Magazine in 2009. Curb ceased publication in 2016. His 1991 book ''Places on the Margin'', won a Library Choice 'Book of the Year' award for demonstrating a theory of Social Spatialisations. Shields argued that geographical places were understood through a network of contrasting places. Social spatialisation influences social action through embodied habit and casting locations as "places for this and places for that". This had significant impact on human geographical definitions of spatiality and understanding of the social and political aspects of geographical space. Shields' approach is related to

Henri Lefebvre Henri Lefebvre ( ; ; 16 June 1901 – 29 June 1991) was a French Marxist philosopher and sociologist, best known for furthering the critique of everyday life, for introducing the concepts of the right to the city and the production of social ...

's social production of space. Shields' interest in spatial and cultural categories led to work on

Virtuality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...

in which he argued that intangibles social spatialisations were real, not abstract ideas or "socially constructed" beliefs. 5. His theory of Cultural Topologies extends spatialisation to time by considering cultural conflicts and collective memory and rhythms of places as time-space manifolds Shields introduces the application of topological concepts to the analysis of cultural senses of

temporality In philosophy, temporality refers to the idea of a linear progression of past, present, and future. The term is frequently used, however, in the context of critiques of commonly held ideas of linear time. In social sciences, temporality is studie ...

as well as spatiality or spatialisation) using the example of the historical problem of the Seven Bridges of Königsburg solved by Leonard

Euler Leonhard Euler ( ; ; ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss polymath who was active as a mathematician, physicist, astronomer, logician, geographer, and engineer. He founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made influential ...

. Recent work includes urban studies of walkability and pedestrians' experience of the city.

Published works

Books and Edited Works ''Spatial Questions: Social Spatialisations and Cultural Topologies''. London: Sage. 2013. 197pp. Mandarin translation 空间问题 Phoenix Educational Publishers, Nanjing 2017. ''The Virtual''. London: Routledge. 2003. 272pp. ''Lefebvre, Love and Struggle: Spatial Dialectics''. London: Routledge, 1999. 218pp. ''Places on the Margin: Alternative Geographies of Modernity''. International Library of Sociology, London: Routledge Chapman Hall, 1991. 334 pp. Library Choice Outstanding Publication of the Year Award. ''City-Regions in Prospect: Place meets Practice''. Co-Editor with Kevin Jones and Alex Lord. McGill-Queen's University Press. 2015. ''Re-reading Jean-François Lyotard. Essays on his later works''. Co-Editor with Heidi Bickis. London: Ashgate. 2013. ''Demystifying Deleuze. An Introductory assemblage of crucial concepts''. Co-Editor with Michael Vallee. Ottawa: Red Quill Books. 2013.
''Strip-Appeal''
''Reimagining the Suburban Mini-mall Design Competition''. Co-edited with M. Patchett. Edmonton: City Region Studies Centre / Space and Culture Publications. 2012. ''Ecologies of Affect: Placing Nostalgia, Desire and Hope''. Co-Editor with Tonya Davidson and Ondine Park, Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. 2011. ''What is a City? Rethinking the Urban After Katrina''. Co-Editor with Philip Steinberg, Athens: Georgia University Press. 2008. 233pp. ''Building Tomorrow: Innovation in Engineering and Construction''. Co-Editor with André Manseau, London: Ashgate. 2005. 184pp. ''Cultures of Internet''. Rob Shields (ed.) London: Sage, 1996. 196pp. Translated into Serbo-Croatian as Kulture Interneta Zagreb: Naklada Jesefnski I Turk, Hrvatscko socioloko drutvo. 2001. ''Social Engineering, The Technics of Change''. Co-Editor with Adam Podgorecki and Jon Alexander, Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1996. 359pp. ''Life Style Shopping: The Subject of Consumption''. International Library of Sociology, London: Routledge, 1993. 239pp. Excerpts translated into Russian and German.

References

External links

Rob Shields Academic site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shields, Rob 1961 births Carleton University alumni Canadian sociologists Canadian geographers Academics from Toronto Alumni of the University of Sussex Academic staff of the University of Alberta Living people